The death of a best friend and impending fatherhood put Chip Curry at a crossroads in his life as searches for the answer to becoming a better man. It doesn’t sound much like a comedy, but that is just what it is when Living Biblically, starring Jay R. Ferguson as the man on a journey, premieres on Monday on CBS.

In this modern era of self-help books, gurus and life coaches, Chip takes a more old-fashioned route. Her turns to the Bible for answers and decides to start living his life 100 percent by the Good Book. As you can imagine, it is not without its difficulties.

“I don’t want to spoil too much of it, but we have an episode, ‘False Idols,’ and, of course, as you may well guess, the false idol in Chip’s life and in most people’s lives are their phones,” Ferguson tells Parade.com in this exclusive interview. “So, we have an episode where he decides he’s not going to have his iPhone anymore because he worships it too much, and, of course, he gets himself into some sticky situations where he needs his phone and doesn’t have it. Hopefully, hilarity ensues.”

Ferguson is joined in the new CBS comedy by his “God Squad:” Father Gene (Ian Gomez), a Catholic Priest who helps Chip translate the rules of the Bible to a modern world; and Rabbi Gil Abelman (David Krumholtz), who is an expert on the Old Testament; as well as his tolerant, pregnant wife Leslie (Lindsey Kraft), who is skeptical about the end results of her husband’s new obsession.

This sounds like I’m going to start a joke but I’m not. We have a priest and a rabbi in a bar, who are going to be advising Chip. So, does that mean that Living Biblically is going to cover both the Old and the New Testament?

The short answer is yes. When we reference the Bible, we are referencing the whole Bible from beginning to end, not trying to focus too heavily on one side or the other. In fact, if anything, I want to say that in the first season, we’re primarily Old Testament. But not being a theologian, I would hesitate to put that in concrete.

What kinds of stories can you pull from the Bible but make them applicable to modern day and the conflict that Chip needs to experience to get laughs?

You’d be as surprised as I have been to learn some of these things. Chip gets himself into situations where certain things are a little bit harder to apply into a modern-day society, but I think for the most part what Chip goes through and what we as the show is trying to represent is, first and foremost, to make people laugh. But then, at its core, I really also believe it’s a show about trying to illustrate for people out there that we have more in common than we do differences.

By that I mean that the show tries to present things that have been taken from the Bible, but also things that are fundamental pillars of not any particular religion, but are part of our modern, non-atheist society today as well. They are things that everybody can get on board with, like love thy neighbor, do not covet, it’s better to give than to receive. Things that highlight how much more that we all have in common than we’re even aware of — and that’s believers, non-believers, everybody — all of the different societal spectrums, if you will.

If people are paying attention, they’ll pick up on that stuff. The sweet little added treat for me is to have the opportunity to do a comedy show, but also present a positive message.

Any concerns that this might offend people?

Not at all. Beforehand, I should probably say there’s always somebody that’s offended by everything. There is no making it bulletproof to people out there who make it their mission in life to not like things. If that’s the case, they’ll find holes in it I’m sure, but, to me, having come from a deeply religious family on both sides growing up, I can tell you that they will not have a problem with this. I use my family as my barometer. I know that if they can take it then anybody can take it.

So Chip is doing a “soul cleanse,” which made me think that this show is about more than living by the Bible. I felt as if it was making fun of all the obsessions we have in modern life of how to live our lives better, from juice cleanses, to all the self-help books, gurus, life coaches, and things like that. Am I right about that?

Oh, absolutely. We certainly try to dial in things folks that have never even read the Bible will be able to relate to. That’s the glue that binds this unique show together because on its face, just by the title alone, it would appear to be trying to appeal to only one part of our society, when in truth, the goal is to appeal to all. If people give it shot, I think that they’ll find that that’s the case.

Johnny Galecki is one of the executive producers on this. He’s also on the No. 1 comedy on television right now, The Big Bang Theory. What does he bring to this?

I’ve known Johnny since we were young guys, probably about 15, 16 years old, and it’s very surreal to now be working with him, having known him as long as I have. I am eternally grateful to him for bringing me on board and thinking about me. That said, I think he brings a certain guidance. They’ve reinvented the wheel over at TBBT and perfected it.

He’s always there during our rehearsals, our run-throughs and our tape nights and rarely will step in to make a suggestion, but when he feels like he’s got a suggestion, he doesn’t hesitate. I welcome that because I trust him wholeheartedly.

We’ve just got this all-star group and, certainly, Johnny is right at the top of that list. It’s a nice feeling of safety. You know you’re safe and you’re going to be taken care of. We’ve got guys — and Johnny as well — that their main objective is to put out good material and they don’t want to compromise that for anything. So, in my position, it makes my job a whole lot easier to just be able to focus on what I’m trying to do and not worry if the people at the top are handling it correctly.

You mentioned the writing. The pilot had some very clever references.

Thank you. We got really lucky with the writing. With [executive producer] Patrick Walsh leading the charge, he brought on this incredible group of writers. It’s great to have trust in the powers that be because it’s not always like that. In fact, it’s rarely like this. So, I really appreciate having that bonus on this gig.

You started acting at a really young age in the TV series The Outsiders (1990). It doesn’t look like you ever had to wait tables or take other jobs. To what do you attribute that?

Well, this might not be the most interesting answer, but I attribute it really to just being incredibly lucky. Not even 10 years ago, I was what you would consider flying under the radar in terms of anybody really having any awareness of me as a performer or actor, in this town anyway.

Most of the shows and other things that I kept myself busy with also flew under the radar, and so, nobody was even really aware of any of those things being on television. It wasn’t until Mad Men came along. It changed everything and put me on a show that was on everybody’s radar and I reaped the whirlwind from it. It was a windfall of opportunity after that.

I would say that during my first 15 years or so in this business, I was just flying by the seat of my pants, getting real lucky, being able to do well enough to earn a job but not necessarily exceeding expectations. Now, in what has been the latter half of my career, it’s been a much different situation.

Mad Men was pretty much the impetus for me to start having a real type of career and being able to assert some decision making and being somewhat selective to a certain degree, which was a new thing for me. So, I attribute the first half to luck and the second half to Mad Men.

You know there’s that expression, luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. So, you must have been prepared.

I have heard that before. I would challenge that as it would apply to me as a younger man, though, because there wasn’t nearly enough preparation going on, but you never know. I’m not complaining. Certainly, I’m very happy it worked out the way it did. For whatever reason, this business allowed me to keep my nose above water just enough to keep breathing, long enough for me to get a wonderful opportunity, and then I’ve been running with it ever since.

Is there something besides acting that you’re passionate about?

There’s a few things. I’m a big Dallas Cowboy fan, so a football fan. I love golf. I love to travel with my family, I love getting out in my garden, and I am an obsessive Star Wars fan. Other than that, I’m a pretty boring person.

AMG/Parade Digital

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